 Laguna Beach (MTV) As expected, it doesn't work at all. The kids are as inarticulate and uninteresting as kids anywhere, not particularly more attractive than anyone else, and certainly no more exciting. I was bored out of my mind trying to get through two episodes, and I pretty much just had it on in the background. The whole thing comes off as a desperate grab at the kind of youth-savviness MTV might once have had, but which has long since been lost in the endless corporate payola that drives pretty much all of the network's programming. The show clearly exists to capitalize on O.C. withdrawal, but instead of providing anything comparable, it serves up only naked record-label PR. That the background music is by far the most engaging thing about Laguna Beach – despite the music being not at all hip, organic, or even ear-catching – shows how bottom-of-the-barrel this show is. For the sake of humanity, I sure hope MTV's viewers aren't as pathetically brain-dead as its marketers think they are. Review by Marcus Lindsay-Lohan © 2004 |
